Political Science: Chapter 2

Ideology

a collection of ideas that modify and support one another

each ideology contains certain ideas/beliefs on what it considers to be the best form of government (e.g., autocracy or democracy) and the best economic system (e.g., capitalism or socialism).

Uses of Ideologies

▪ Simplify processing of ideas: filter

▪ Connect people to other people

▪ Umbrella for mobilization

Offer opportunity for change in society

▪ Shorthand for packaging political ideas

▪ Glue that ties ideas together

▪ Guide decisions

main functions of ideology

•to explain social, political, and economic conditions/phenomena that people face;

• to evaluate social conditions; 

•to orient people to help them find their place in society; and

•to dictate a plan of social and political actions.

american ideologies

•“loosely organized, inconsistent, and untidy”;

•no internal coherence, constantly migrating; and

•shaped by squeezing into coalitions rather than by any intellectual

reasoning

American Liberalism

▪ government needs to be active in the assistance it provides to those in need; in measure, providing services

▪ aggressively defends freedom of expression

▪ classically suspicious of “elites” exercising power

American Conservatism

▪ government should shrink from activities and allow authority to devolve power and functions to other levels, branches, units of government

▪ maintain an efficient, minimally regulated economy;

fiscal prudence

▪ advocate common morality & common spirituality

Fiscal Prudence

the ability of government to sustain smooth monetary operation and long-standing fiscal conditions. Careful management and allocation of financial resources. Also making difficult and tough decisions while opting not to pass on a legacy of debts to future generation.

Classic Liberalism

develop individual capacities to the fullest

• advocates free market and laissez-faire (no interference) economics; and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech.

• invented by British intellectuals (John Locke, Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, David Ricardo etc.)

• result of general artistic & scientific restlessness

• practical pressures from large scale commerce & industry

Principles of Classic Liberalism

▪ People must be maximally responsible for their own actions and circumstances

▪ Liberals see politics as choice

▪ As many choices as possible should be kept private

▪ The sphere of politics should be limited

•Champion: John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)

Classic Conservatism

•commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.

•proponents of theological conservatism;

•the holding of political views that favor free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas.

•tradition, maintain ordered community,

•press for common values

Classic Socialism

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community
▪ working class and unions

  ▪ Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)

• Goal was to promote a classless society in which everyone shared the benefits of labor, and the state government controlled all property and wealth.

▪ economic class as basis of society, government, history

▪ working class oppressed by capitalist/bourgeois class

▪ working class revolution inevitable in industrialized countries

▪ Democratic socialism: Western Europe

▪ Communism: former USSR

Classic Facism

a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government

▪ Hitler in Germany; Mussolini in Italy

Stands for a centralized autocratic government

▪ Antisocialist and anti-capitalist

▪ Opportunist politics

▪ Violence and oppression of opponents

  ▪ Hitler and the Holocaust

▪ World War Two ended most organized fascism

Communism

a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned, and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

Principles of Modern Conservatism

▪ People must be maximally responsible for their own actions and circumstances

▪ belief that society is MORE than the sum of the individuals in it

▪ greatest good possible in community

▪ order, structure, community and all things that reinforce and maintain it

▪ web of social ties and responsibilities

Preservation of ancestral institutions above excessive individualism

Emphasis on concepts  such as custom, convention, and tradition.

•Champion: Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

21st Century Ideologies

▪ tendency to “blend” commitments

▪ “post-material issues” & objectives (the environment)

▪ neo-liberalism & globalization (economics)

▪ historical & religious sources of ideas …(fundamentalism)

▪ relevance of class

▪ comfort with welfare state

Religion & Political Thinking

Religions are ideologies

▪ Because “God given,” resistant to compromise

▪ Resistant to “blending” with other ideas

▪ Often evokes strong emotions

▪ For some, religious identity coexists with many other identities

▪ For others, religion is the primary identity shaping all others

CLASSIC Left

Liberal, Anarchist (absence of gov)

CLASSIC Right

Conservative, Monarchist

Contemporary American Ideology

• conservative (conservatism, classical and economic liberalism)

•liberal (progressivism, welfare capitalism and social liberalism)

•moderate

Contemporary American Libertarianism

belief in the maximization of autonomy and political freedom, and the minimization of the State’s encroachments and violations of individual liberties. Also, emphasis on the rule of law, pluralism, cosmopolitanism, cooperation, civil and political rights, freedom of association, free trade, freedom of expression